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Review of "Under the Rose" by Diana Peterfreund

I really liked Under the Rose--as a matter of fact I liked it even more than Secret Society Girl. This book had some of the same problems that the first one did (mainly a rushed ending), but either they weren't as bad as in the first book or they just didn't bother me as much.

For those that haven't read my review of Secret Society Girl (and why haven't you?) or aren't familiar with the series, Under the Rose follows Eli University senior Amy Haskell as she makes her way in the world of Rose and Grave, a prestigious secret society on the Eli Campus (very much in the way of Skull and Bones on the real life Yale campus). In the first book, Amy, a junior at the time, was tapped by Rose and Grave as part of the D177 class, which also happens to be the very first class that included women, causing many of the Patriarchs (the old boys' club) to wreak havoc on the current class and the one that tapped them because they were under the impression that it was still the 19th Century.

Under the Rose picks up a few months after the ending of Secret Society Girl and a few things have changed, the least of which is that Amy is now a senior and needs to get her school work in order, especially her senior thesis. Unfortunately, Rose and Grave is taking up more of her time than she thought it would and her school work ends up taking a back seat to her society life. First, there is a strange rhyming threat about the society "rotting from within," which was closely followed by a website leaking society secrets, making the Patriarchs none too happy and all too willing to stop funding the current class. It doesn't help matters that none of her society brothers and sisters are willing to believe Amy's conspiracy theories and she on her own in regards to finding (1) the leak and (2) one of the missing diggirls, the nickname that was given to the female society members. Of course, the one person she could turn to is the one person she doesn't want to turn to: Poe, one of the members of D176, the class that graduated in the prior book. For many reasons Amy doesn't like Poe, but she knows that he would do anything to help the society, so they start working together to solve the mystery.

This book was very much about feeling included and accepted. Amy still feels like an outsider because she wasn't originally supposed to be tapped and because she doesn't consider herself as accomplished as some of the other diggers. Poe feels like an outsider because as a law student he no longer has access to the entire campus and because he doesn't have to funds to have the kind of social life that other students on the campus do. Lydia feels like an outsider because Amy has her society and she failed to get tapped the year before (not that she was willing to part with that information). The male members of the society felt left out because they felt that the girls were more interested in hanging out on their own than in inviting the entire society to hang out with them. The girls felt left out for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being the pressure put on the society by a cadre of Patriarchs, who still wanted to women out of their society.

I still felt like the ending got the short straw as it came very quickly. I know that there are two more books in the series, but I don't particularly like feeling as if a book should end with "To Be Continues" instead of "The End." There were a lot balls up in the air and the way the end was set up it felt like Ms. Peterfruend was trying to tie everything up in a bow. All of a sudden the disappearance of one of the diggirls was solved, Amy's relationship with one of her brothers was discontinued, Lydia's secret came out as did Jenny's, and the villains got what was coming to them. It was all too neat and gave me the feeling that there was more to the story (which of course there is).

I am hoping that the next book, which is waiting for me at the library, tells us more about Poe, whose name is actually Jamie. I really liked learning a bit about him in this book, but he is still a bit of a mystery and it seems as if there is something between him and Amy.

In the end, I would have to give this book 4.5 stars because while there were some problems the writing is spectacular. You're grabbed from the very first page and you don't want to stop reading even after the book is done.

Most readers remember their first, the first book of their particular genre that they read, whether they enjoyed the book or not. I have two firsts--the first romance I ever read was a Harlequin Intrigue written by Amanda Stevens. If you've read my blog before you probably already know this. The first historical romance I read was Mesmerized by Candace Camp, which was also the first book in her Mad Morelands series.

I was a senior in high school when this series began and I remember seeing the paperback version of Mesmerized on the shelf at the Target on Queens Blvd (yes, I spent a lot of time on Queens Blvd as a teenager), and was pulled in by the gorgeous cover. Apparently, that book has had several covers over the last 15 years, but this is the one I remember:

It seems like I've been reading Karen Rose novels my entire life. I remember the day I came across Count to Ten in the Duane Reade on Queens Blvd. I'd finished the paperback I brought with me to school that day while sitting in the Dining Hall eating lunch and needed something for the long bus ride home. I almost didn't buy it because it was $9.99 and I hadn't gotten my financial aid money yet, but the cover copy called to me. Not even the 500+ page count could scare me away.

I recently learned that Edge of Darkness is Ms. Rose's 20th book and in a strange way, I feel like a proud mama watching her child cross the stage to get their diploma. I'm just a big ball of happy nostalgia, thinking back to all of the other books I've read by her and hopeful about the ones to come, so befor…

Have you ever seen the description of a book and known immediately that it was going to be awesome and upon reading it were faced with the possibility that it might actually be better than you originally thought? For me, that book was Hacking IT by Kimberly Dean. A female white hat hacker using her skills to uncover a black hat hacker, who has stepped away from his computer and entered the real world? Um, yes, please.

From the Publisher:
Independent software developer Kylie Grant is on top of her game in the world of IT. She has loyal clients, a good reputation, and a prestigious membership in technology giant Afire Industries’ small business accelerator. Things are going well until she stumbles across an innocuous issue with the lighting in the building where she rents space. When she digs into the problem, she discovers some…

I read my first Nora Roberts novel when I was a 16-year-old high school junior. I remember seeing her books in all of the drug stores long before the fateful day on which I decided to actually buy one but had never thought anything of them. From that day on, La Nora became the gold standard--the author all others had to live up to, the one to beat. I remember sitting at my mom's kitchen table with one of her paperbacks and a sheet of paper, marking down which of her books were available at the libraries near me. Her backlog was (and still is) immense and I was going to read them all. While I still haven't read all of her books, I've read a good chunk of them, many of which have a place on my virtual keeper shelf, which is why I was so deeply disappointed in Come Sundown.

I was really excited for this book. I devoured the entire K2 series a couple of years ago, but somehow I missed the first two books of the Aces and Eights series. I'd hoped that I'd be able to jump right into this book without having read the others, and in a way I was able to do so as the main plot had nothing to do with the others. However, I feel that had I known the characters' backgrounds a little bit more, I would have felt more of a connection to them, which would have helped me have a better reading experience.

From the Publisher:Two FBI agents struggle with desire in the shadow of a killer, in the third installment of Aces & Eights.
Nate Gentry has been a rock for his two younger brothers since the day their mom walked out and left them with their abusive father. Now that…